A History of Sanskrit Literature c10.43

c10.43

Nevertheless a certain prejudice has prevailed against the *Atharva* from the time of the Dharma Sūtras. This appears from the fact that, even at the present day, according to Burnell, the most influential Brahmans of Southern India still refuse to accept the authority of the fourth Veda, and deny its genuineness. A similar conclusion may be drawn from occasional statements in classical texts, and especially from the efforts of the later Atharvan writings themselves to vindicate the character of their Veda. These ritual texts not only never enumerate the Vedas without including the *Atharva*, but even sometimes place it at the head of the four Vedas. Under a sense of the exclusion of their Veda from the sphere of the sacrificial ritual, they lay claim to the fourth priest (the *brahman*), who in the Vedic religion was not attached to any of the three Vedas, but being required to have a knowledge of all three and of their sacrificial application, acted as superintendent or director of the sacrificial ceremonial. Ingeniously availing themselves of the fact that he was unconnected with any of the three Vedas, they put forward the claim of the fourth Veda as the special sphere of the fourth priest. That priest, moreover, was the most important as possessing a universal knowledge of religious lore (*brahma*), the comprehensive esoteric understanding of the nature of the gods and of the mystery of the sacrifice. Hence the *Gopatha Brāhmaṇa* exalts the *Atharva* as the highest religious lore (*brahma*), and calls it the *Brahmaveda*. The claim to the latter designation was doubtless helped by the word *brahma* often occurring in the *Atharva-veda* itself with the sense of "charm," and by the fact that the Veda contains a larger amount of theosophic matter (*brahmavidyā*) than any other Saṃhitā. The texts belonging to the other Vedas never suggest that the *Atharva* is the sphere of the fourth priest, some Brāhmaṇa passages expressly declaring that any one equipped with the requisite knowledge may be a *brahman*. The ritual texts of the *Atharva* further energetically urged that the *Purohita*, or domestic chaplain, should be a follower of the *Atharva-veda*. They appear to have finally succeeded in their claim to this office, doubtless because kings attached great value to a special knowledge of witchcraft.